Was Mary Magdalene the Wife of Jesus? Was She a Prostitute and Sinner?

Birger Pearson’s piece at the BAS Web site addressing the questions of whether Mary Magdalene was Jesus’ wife? and Was Mary Magdalene a Prostitute? is really well done in my view. It is short but to the point. I see it as an advance over the article he did some years ago in Bible Review. Take a look and see what you think.

I have a long treatment of this subject with what I hope are some new thoughts the book The Jesus Discovery, co-authored with Simcha Jacobovici that will be released at the end of this month. Like many of my colleagues I was on the side of those who said the notion that Jesus might have been married was unhistorical hype and sensationalism. I say this plainly in my last book, The Jesus Dynasty, “While gripping fiction, this idea is long on speculation and short on evidence” (p. 4). Over the years I have educated myself on this subject, benefited from wonderful colleagues like Jane Schaberg, April DeConick, and Ann Graham Brock, plus taken in more deeply the implications of the Talpiot “Jesus tomb.” My own more recent positions I have laid out in the four part extended series “There’s Something About Mary…Magdalene.”